The Sanest are the Insane
by blueyedwonder
Summary: One night Cheshire Cat comes to the asylum, returning Alice to Wonderland to finish what she started.


                                    The Sanest are the Insane

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters at all.  Don't sue me.  

            Alice Liddell lay in a white sterile bed remembering for the umpteenth time, the loss of her sanity.  She had been reading a book when her cat Dinah tipped her lamp over.  The door had been stuck, making it impossible for her to reach her family in time.  She had watched the grand Victorian house burn to ashes thinking all the while, _I did this.  Now she was in a Victorian asylum, where the sanest are the insane. _

            "Alice, it's time for your morning session," a nurse said, shaking her awake.  Reluctantly she walked down the hall to Dr. Dodgson's office, still in her thin cotton nightgown.  

            "Why hello Alice," the doctor greeted.  Alice did not return his greeting.  She quietly curled up in her usual leather chair, next to the window.  "What would you like to talk about today?" 

            "I had a dream last night," she announced, her voice toneless.

            "Did you?  What about?"  Dr. Dodgson poised his pen, ready to take notes.  

            "Wonderland."  A small smile crept to her face as she said these words.  She gazed wondrously at the ceiling, almost seeing a sharp luminescent grin.   It was too much to hope for.  Always too much.

            "Alice, you must remember that Wonderland isn't real.  It's just a figment of your imagination."  

            "But it isn't you see.  It is a real place," Alice insisted.

            "Didn't your father tell you the stories of this place?" Dr. Dodgson inquired.  

            "NO!  It was my uncle.  My Uncle Lewis.  He told me the stories, he made me believe.  Then one day I fell down the rabbit hole and met Cheshire Cat and the White Rabbit, and the March Hare.  Later I fell through the looking glass and found more.  He wrote a book about it," Alice reminded the doctor.  She hugged her ragged stuffed Rabbit to her chest and continued searching for the grin.  

            "Alice what you had was a series of hallucinatory episodes, it wasn't real.  You just created them in your head."  He tapped her lightly on the head.  When he did this she immediately reacted by backhanding him across the face.  

            "Nurse! The straitjacket!" he yelled down the hall.  A burly nurse rushed in and restrained Alice with the coat.  

            "Wonderland is real!  Someday you will see!" she yelled as she was drug down the hall into her room where a long thin needle was stuck into her bony arm, throwing her into a deep sleep.  

            _Someday you will see_

_               Cheshire cat will come back for me_

_            And all of you will see _

_                        That Wonderland isn't just for me_

_            See I'm not crazy as can be_

            Later that night Alice lie in bed staring at the ceiling as the room spun round and round. Cheshire Cat's voice murmured deep inside her head-oh how she missed him so.  

            "See we're all mad here."  Alice sat up, realizing that the voice hadn't been in just her mind.  A wide grin loomed before her and a seriously emaciated cat scampered down the bed.  

            "Cheshire Cat!  You've come back!" she exclaimed in a hushed tone.  All she needed was for a nurse to hear her talking.  They were not putting her into that coat again.  

            "Indeed I have Alice.  Nice place you've got here," he commented, glancing around the room.  "I always knew you were mad.  Even before this."

            "What makes you think I was mad before this?" Alice asked curiously.  

            "Two reasons.  One: you came to Wonderland.  And two: the mirror is double sided."

            "What are you talking about?" 

            "Oh never mind!"  Cheshire sprawled out on the clean white blanket.  

            "Oh Cheshire Puss what has happened to you?" Alice exclaimed, noticing his scrawniness for the first time.  She ran her fingers over his defined ribs and earring.  

            "Ah Alice, as you have lost sanity Wonderland has too.  Not that Wonderland ever really had any sanity, but you get my point." 

            "Indeed I do," Alice said pulling him closer to her.  

            "How are the others?" 

            "Not well.  Not well indeed.  The Mad Hatter has joined the Red King and the Queen of Hearts and now has rule over your beloved Wonderland.  I always knew he drank too much of that bloody tea."  

            "What must I do?"  Alice sat up straight now, awaiting the answer.

            "Do?  You must return to Wonderland and seek revenge.  Share your wrath and make them suffer."  The emaciated cat shook slightly at the word suffer.  

            "I don't know if I can!"  She fell back onto her flat hospital pillows.  Cheshire Puss scurried up onto her chest. 

            "You must!"

            "But how?" 

            "Well that really is a stupid question if I do say so myself," Cheshire Cat said quite bluntly.  

            "I swear Cat!"  
            "Oh Alice, just do what you did before.  _Follow the white rabbit! "_

            "How do I get to him?" Alice asked gravely.  This would land her in therapy for the rest of her life.

            "Come with me!" Cheshire said, fading.  

            Suddenly Alice was falling down the rabbit hole.  She was wearing her old blue dress and pinafore.  Falling felt much more natural than she remembered it and she quite preferred it to walking.  She floated past a shelf of knives and remembering what the Cheshire Cat had said about revenge and wrath, pocketed one.  The bottom came all too soon and Alice managed to land in a heap.  She stood up and followed the quick white feet and jacket to the Fortress of Doors.  Of course the rabbit disappeared into the smallest door in which she did not fit.       

            "Oh so we're going to play this game are we?  But don't you remember, I've done this already!" she yelled into space.  

            "No Alice, you haven't."  That was Cheshire's voice.  

                        _To continue on this journey_

_                           You must come to me_

_                             One chance is all you get_

_                              Hope you're quick and full of wit_

            "Oh, riddles!" Alice grumbled.  She had to follow the maze of doors to Cheshire cat, eh?  One chance huh?  Bring it on.  Glancing around she quickly decided on a door with a small half moon engraved on the handle.  The moon represented Cheshire's smile.  As soon as she walked through the door, the world tipped upside down.  Alice stabbed her knife it the ground, tilting it and managed to climb through a metal door.  

            Cards.  That's what stood on the other side.  Quickly Alice threw her knife at one and it ricocheted off on the others.  Pulling it out of an ace she quickly made a decision of the next door.  One made out of leaves.  The tea party.  

            Hatter sat alone drinking his half cup of tea.  "Would you like some tea?" he asked, tipping his four foot tall hat.    
            "Sorry Hatter, perhaps another time," Alice said, rushing through his garden door.  The Cheshire Cat sat on a tree limb, singing a rhyme, off key.  

            "I see you've found me Alice."  
            "Yes I have, and I can't say that riddle was very clever."

            "Riddle is as riddle does.  Remember that!" Cheshire told her.  

            "Why?"

            "What do you mean why?"

            "Why should I remember that?"  Alice was beginning to get irritated.

            "Remember what?"  Cheshire looked quite confused.  

            "Oh never mind, you stupid cat!"

            "Stupid is a very strong word.  I think you mean mad," he corrected, hopping to the ground.

            "You like being mad?" 

            "Why shouldn't I?"  

            "Because ordinary people aren't." 

            "Aren't what?"  He suddenly remembered when Alice tightened her grip on the jack knife.  "Well to be precise I'm not an ordinary person.  In fact I'm not a person at all."  This last comment sent him straight into a fit of laughter.  It also earned him a kick in the ribs from yours truly.  "The sanest are the insane.  Remember that too." 

            "Perhaps I will." 

            "Well come along, then!"  Alice followed Cheshire into the dark woods, unknowing about the upcoming.

A/N: Okay, that was really bad.  Its just something I wrote a bit ago and wanted to post.  I've never played the game, so it's probably way off.  Just bear with me.  If I get about 5-10 good reviews I'll try to continue it.  Review!


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